The Welsh, Scottish and Irish Rugby Unions have been warned that they risk
putting their clubs “in a very difficult position” if they prevent them from
joining the new Rugby Champions Cup being proposed by the English and French
clubs.

Stay where you are: Welsh clubs, including Cardiff Blues, have been told they will not be allowed to compete in a new competitionPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

The governing bodies of the three Celtic countries issued almost identical statements simultaneously on Thursday insisting that they would not sanction any of their clubs or regions participating in future tournaments which did not have the full approval of the International Rugby Board and the relevant unions.

Mark McCafferty, the chief executive of Premiership Rugby, responded by claiming that “five to 10 clubs” had declared an interest in joining the new Anglo-French tournament.

He said each club participating in the new tournament, which will be backed by broadcaster BT Sport, would receive a minimum of £2million, more than twice the amount that the English clubs receive from the Heineken Cup.

And he predicted that the Celtic unions could be on collision course with their own clubs if they prevented them from joining the new tournament.

“What they are saying is that they will only allow their teams in if they and the IRB supports it, which doesn’t preclude the Rugby Champions Cup,” McCafferty said.

“It just means to say at the time they are going to have to make a decision.

“If they preclude it, they are going to put their clubs in a very difficult position and unless they have got a viable alternative for their clubs and teams then they would be, I suspect, getting increased pressure from those teams to say ‘if you don’t want us to do that, what is the alternative?’ ”

The Celtic unions’ statements went on to say that they “remain fully committed to the development of a pan-European rugby competition” and welcomed “the recent comments made by the IRB chairman [Brett Gosper], who confirmed that a pan-European tournament remains the goal of the IRB”.

The Rugby Football Union said only that its position had not changed since its last statement when it said it was seeking a “consensus to benefit all parties”.

The European Rugby Cup Limited is due to hold negotiations on Oct 23, and has appointed a mediator, Canadian lawyer Graeme Mew, in an attempt to thrash out a deal.

McCafferty, however, said Premiership Rugby was no longer in dispute with ERC, as it had served notice to leave the accord in June 2012.

He wrote to his ERC counterpart Derek McGrath on Monday to confirm his organisation would not be attending the stakeholder meeting.

“Over the last five years, if you look at the extra amount they have received of what might be their natural level of one third [of the tournament revenues] rather than their current figure of 52 per cent, between us and the French we have probably put £30million into RaboDirect Pro 12 Rugby.”

McCafferty added that he expected the RFU to support the Premiership clubs’ stance.